Nashville Predators Showing Confidence In Head Coach Brunette
The Nashville Predators had their lowest number of wins in a season (30) since 2002-03 (27), their fifth year of existence. It was bad from start to finish and any player that did have good stretches or was playing decent was dragged down by the team as a whole. Something has to change ahead of next season.
General manager Barry Trotz built this current team and it is up to him to take on a portion of the responsibility of how the very poor 2024-25 season went. He was the one who hired Andrew Brunette as the head coach and he had done well up until this season. There may have been a false sense of hope for the team last season when they went on an amazing run to make it to the playoffs.
A lot was added in the offseason and multiple veteran stars were added to the mix. It is never easy for a coach to deal with a lot of turnover after a relatively successful campaign in 2023-24. For all that went wrong this season for the Predators, Trotz hasn't thrown Brunette under the bus and has said that he will be back for a third season behind the bench in Nashville.
If Brunette wasn't going to be fired mid-season, the end of the season was more likely. That clearly isn't the case though. But if he can't turn things around and get the Predators back into the playoff hunt, his job will be in jeopardy fairly quickly. I think that allowing Brunette to have another offseason to prepare and adjust should give him a fair shot at fixing the issues that plagued the team all season. Look for the Predators to make moves this offseason to give him the best shot at coaching a competitive team again.
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